Finding common cause with the freedom fighters of the adult film industry, Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan won a big legal victory late last week, ensuring, at least for the time being, that he’d be able to keep his Michigan workplace condom-free.

On Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff ruled in Tom Monaghan’s favor, issuing a temporary court order which would allow the fundamentalist former Ypsilantian, and Domino’s Pizza founder, to avoid providing contraceptive coverage for his employees at Ann Arbor’s Domino’s Farms, in spite of the fact that such coverage is now required under the terms of the Affordable Care Act. The following clip comes by way of the Detroit Free Press.

…”The government will suffer some, but comparatively minimal harm if the injunction is granted,” Zatkoff wrote in Thursday’s decision.

Monaghan’s case is one of about 16 pending nationwide. Detroit-area Weingartz Supply received a similar injunction last fall.

Monaghan, a devout Catholic, founded Domino’s Pizza in 1960 and sold it in 1998. He also owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983-92 and founded the Ave Maria School of Law, a Catholic law school that moved from Ann Arbor to Naples, Fla., in 2009.

His Domino’s Farms has 45 full-time and 44 part-time employees. Absent a court order, the business would have had to offer contraception and sterilization services with no co-pay starting Jan. 1 or face about $200,000 in annual penalties under the health care law…

This was, by the way, the second time that Zatkoff had stepped in to help Monaghan avoid compliance, having authored a temporary injunction against the Affordable Care Act mandate, as it pertained to Managhan’s Michigan employees, on December 31, 2012.

If the name Lawrence Zatkoff sounds familiar, it’s because he happens to employ a young relative by the name of Justin Zatkoff, who, as you might remember, had this very website pulled from the internet earlier this winter in an attempt to sanitize the online record he’d amassed as the aggressive and controversial leader of the University of Michigan College Republicans. (There were several allegations of unethical behavior prior to his leaving the University to continue his undergraduate studies elsewhere.)

Not only did Judge Zatkoff, who was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan, take his young relation in, giving him a much-sought-after position in spite of his seemingly checkered past, but it would appear that he likewise may have helped guide him into law school, given that Justin is now enrolled at University of Detroit Mercy, the Catholic law school from which the Judge graduated in the 60s. Speaking of UDM, that’s some good luck for Monaghan that he just happened to have his case heard by a judge who, like him, is a conservative Catholic. At least I find it interesting that the Judge, who is a product of the UDM, is hearing the case of Monaghan, who, among other things, operates a Catholic law school of his own. (I’m not suggesting that there was any collusion. I just find the coincidence worth noting.)

As for Monaghan, as some of you may know, he packed up his budding little Dominionist empire and left Ypsilanti for the swamps of Florida shortly after his attempt to legislate local discrimination was soundly defeated in the polls. Sadly, though, as demonstrated in this story, we’re still not completely free of his fundamentalist grasp.

One last thing… One wonders what Zatkoff will rule when it’s a Scientologist CEO before him, arguing that she shouldn’t have to provide mental health care for her employees, as psychotherapy is the work of evil extraterrestrial entities, or a conservative Muslim arguing that he shouldn’t have to hire women, as they’re unfit for the workplace. Is it only his religion that he feels should be able to traverse the wall of separation between church and state, or all of them?

22 Comments

I wouldn’t characterize Monaghan as a devout Catholic. I’d characterize him as a right wing zealot Catholic of the Cardinal Dolan clan.
I’d call the Nuns on the Bus devout Catholics….of the Jesus clan.

It’s makes it easier to accept all of this when you’re not shown all the dots and how they connect. Justin was given a job working in the office of a federal judge because of who he was related to (I’m assuming the Judge is his uncle or grandfather). Given his questionable exploits before leaving U-M (I assume he was either kicked out, or asked to leave), I think it’s safe to say that he didn’t get the job on his merits. And now he’s in law school at the alma mater of the Judge in question. And let’s remember that this young man was know around the UM campus for being one of the most vocal opponents to affirmative action, stating that it gave black people an unfair advantage. The whole thing makes me sick. And now, on top of it all, we have the Judge allowing Monaghan to keep birth control from his employees. Disgusting.

Question: If the U.S. Supreme Court has already upheld the legality of Obamacare, why is this judge being allowed to continue to issue injunctions to Monaghan and others based on the premise that one (key) aspect of it conflicts with their “religious beliefs.”

First, it was a handful of pharmacists refusing to fill valid prescriptions for contraception or morning-after pills because of they claimed it conflicted with their religious convictions.

Next, we had legislative attempts to allow physicians to refuse to treat certain individuals whose habits or “lifestyle” they perceived to be in conflict with their religious views.

At the rate we’re going, we’ll soon reach the point where anytime anybody doesn’t want to follow some law or rule they don’t like, all they’ll have to do is invoke the trump-card of “religion.” Don’t like mowing your lawn all summer long … ? Don’t like following speed-limits … ? Don’t like paying taxes … ? No problem! Just claim any and all are against your religious beliefs.

As has been famously said: Elections have consequences. Congress passed this legislation and the President signed it into law. The Supreme court has upheld the legality of “Obamacare,” and American voters have subsequently re-elected its namesake. This argument is over, and at this point all this legal wrangling over “religious” exemptions is nothing more than a massive waste of time and taxpayer money.

That dollar amount at the end of the post, concerning the additional health care costs anticipated in Texas as a result of their defunding of family planning activities, if I’m not mistaken, is just for the births alone. It does not take into account the anticipated costs associated with those 24,000 individuals as they grow up.

We laugh at the absurdity of Scientology, but, for the most part, we give the Catholic church a pass, as it’s been with us forever. We somehow look beyond the stockpiled wealth of the Vatican, that runs so contrary to the teachings of Jesus, who preached so eloquently of modesty and simplicity. Instead of using those riches to feed the poor, the church makes golden robes and thrones, and we seem to be OK with that. And we repeatedly turn a bind eye to the pedophilia coverups that have become commonplace. Why we would allow these people to dictate our domestic policy is beyond me. I refuse to have my life run by people who believe that their god gives a shit as to where I ejaculate.

As I understand it, Monaghan isn’t just attempting to stop his employees from using condoms, but all forms of birth control, including the pill, which, as you may know, has therapeutic value outside of birth control. Zatkoff and Monaghan essentially told women at Domino’s Farms that “the pill” won’t be covered, even if it’s being taken for its cancer-fighting properties, because it also prevents pregnancy. As much as the right likes to yell about death panels and social engineering, you’d think they might have a problem with that.